Coming of the Gods
by Honeyfish
Summary: Hanatarou and Rikichi just might not meet the God criteria that the island natives expect.


_Nir here, with an all-new fic for you peons. _

_This started as a trade with one of my friends on DeviantArt. She adores Hana and Rikichi, so I thought I should make them the main characters! Plus there's just not enough fanfiction of them around. _

_Sorry Kisu. I know you gave me the theme 'ocean' but this was the best I could do! I hope you like it so far!_

_Nir_

"All present and accounted for? Let's see…" The team's leader counted off the Shinigami standing in front of him. In the background, the waves lapped the shore rhythmically, almost lulling in the heat. The island breeze stirred the leafy plants that fringed the beach. "Ah, Rikichi-san is missing. Would somebody please go retrieve him?"

The five Shinigami present were all tired and sweating from the heat. They'd spent hours combing the island, looking for souls to perform a Konsu on and had found nothing. It was no surprise they weren't exactly enthused about the idea of going back into the damp, dense foliage to look for their wayward teammate.

In Soul Society, it is part of a Shinigami's duty to investigate certain areas to search for souls or Hollows. Some areas are visited more often than others, such as large cities and places with dense populations. Sparsely-inhabited regions may be checked only once every few years. To most, this assignment is known as "Soul Patrol." Catchy, eh?

"Anyone?" The leader questioned. "What about you? You were partnered with him." When he got no response, he rapped the sheath of his sword on the head of the Shinigami in question. "Yamada-nanaseki. Go retrieve your partner. That's an order."

Hanatarou, who had been spacing out under the influence of the oppressive heat, snapped to attention. "Ah-! Hai, sir! I… what was I supposed to do?"

"Find Rikichi-san." The team leader repeated, now beginning to get a bit frustrated. He pointed with his sheath into the foliage. "Get back in there, flare your reiatsu a bit, and I'm sure he'll find you."

"But… What if we get lost?"

"You won't. Just go." The other Shinigami all nodded encouragingly. The sooner the kid found his friend, the sooner they could get off this floating sauna.

"H-hai. I'll go get him." Hanatarou bowed and turned to face the dense trees. Could he really find his way out of this place? Come to think of it, he hadn't even noticed Rikichi's disappearance. What if… what if something had attacked him? Some sort of Hollow that could hide itself in the forest? What if it got Hanatarou too? If he never came back, the others would probably just leave. At least that was good. Then the Hollow wouldn't get the chance to eat anyone else.

As he trekked deeper into the jungle, the plants grew thicker and larger. There were a few instances where he had to clumsily hack aside large mats of hanging vines. The air swarmed with insects which didn't seem able to sense his presence but still made for a nuisance. It was terribly humid. His robes were damp and weighed heavily on his body, tiring him quickly. Eventually, he was too tired to continue, and sat down on a nearby boulder to catch his breath.

'Rikichi-san… where are you?' He mentally asked nobody in particular. This wasn't a large island. Any way you went, you would eventually end up on the beach, and from there it was no difficult matter to meet up with the rest of the group. So how had his friend gotten lost? Unless he hadn't gotten lost, and he'd instead been _eaten_-

"No, no…" Hanatarou held his hands to his forehead. "Don't think about that… If there had been a Hollow on the island, one of us would have-"

"Hey!" A pair of hands clamped themselves onto Hanatarou's shoulders, startling him into swinging around and almost knocking the shoulder-grabber to the ground.

"Gaah! Oh, Rikichi-san…" Hanatarou took a deep breath, trying to slow his heartbeat. "P-please don't do that…"

"Only if you promise not to flail at me like that…" The tattooed crossed his arms petulantly, though the wide smile on his face betrayed his real mood.

"Well… now that I've found you, we've got to get back. The others are leaving soon." Hanatarou said, starting toward the path he'd taken to get where he was. He stumbled when Rikichi grabbed his sleeve.

"Woah, hey. Wait up a minute. I got somethin' I wanna show you." Rikichi pointed a thumb over his shoulder. Hanatarou followed it, and saw nothing but more trees.

"Ano… I don't think we have time for any more delays, Rikichi-san…" He said. "We really have to get back. The others are waiting…"

"No, no! You really gotta see this! It's so cool!" Rikichi tugged Hanatarou by the sleeve, pulling him through a bundle of spindly trees.

Hanatarou opened his mouth to object again, but it was clear that Rikichi was not going to cooperate until he had shown Hanatarou what he wanted to show him. He shut up and let his friend drag him to a screen of bamboo-like reeds.

"Okay, now look…" Rikichi parted the reeds and Hanatarou followed him into a large clearing he'd never seen before. How could they have missed something so big when they went over the island the first time? Grass and wooden huts were scattered around the edges. Near the middle, embers smoldered in fire pit ringed with stones. Around the fire pit crouched six people. They were all deeply tanned and wearing clothing that looked like it had been crafted from the plants that grew around the island. They had pierced their faces with bones and feathers and painted their cheeks. Hanatarou had never seen anything like them. They were all staring intently at the two Shinigami.

"Who… are they?" Hanatarou asked. Rikichi smiled and took a step forward. The strange people muttered in some language Hanatarou didn't understand and pointed to the both of them. Hanatarou shifted uncomfortably and tried to make himself less obvious by stepping behind Rikichi, but Rikichi took him by the shoulders and held him out in front.

"Can you believe it? They can see us! I bet they've never even seen a Shinigami before!" Clearly Rikichi found this fascinating, but Hanatarou was more than a little unnerved. "I bet they think we're Gods or something!"

"Well… we kind of are, aren't we?" Hanatarou said. "We're Death Gods... Not the sort of Gods they're thinking about, surely. Rikichi-san, we really should leave. We're going to be stuck here…"

"Oh, come on." Rikichi waved a hand dismissively. "They'll leave the Senkai gate open for us. We can go back any time! For now, let's have a little fun here!"


End file.
